The following description is provided to assist the understanding of the reader. None of the information provided or references cited is admitted to be prior art to the present invention.
Hematopoiesis is a complex process in which hematopoietic stem cells are stimulated to differentiate into multiple lineages by various growth factors. It is assumed that the majority of hematopoietic stem cells are in the quiescent (G0) phase of the cell cycle, and only a few actively cycling hematopoietic stem cells supply all the hematopoietic cells at a given time.
Myelosuppression is the most common adverse effect of cytotoxic chemotherapy and is a major limiting factor in the clinical treatment of cancer. Therefore, promotion of hematopoiesis remains an extremely important challenge in cancer therapy. A large number of cytokines have been screened for their chemoprotective potential. Administration of recombinant colony-stimulating factors, such as granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), and stem cell factor (SCF), alleviates chemotherapy-induced myelotoxicity augmenting proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells in the bone marrow and accelerates the recovery of peripheral blood cells.